Shovelling Muck: A Christmas Tale

In his Advent 4 sermon the day before Christmas Eve Clay Nelson focuses on the messiness of life and finding the divine in the muck. Just as Joseph was Matthew's literary device, Clay looks at Joseph's situation as a righteous person in an unrighteous situation and how he might have come to a compassionate choice. Clay's Joseph is informed by three wise men from the east: Confucius, Mahavira and Gotama and one from the west, Socrates. "Being older he may have been pleased to be betrothed to a young woman. He may have felt it was a dream come true. Being righteous he must have felt his Christmas present was ripped from him just after being unwrapped when she turned out to be pregnant, and not by him. As a righteous man he was obliged to decline the gift. Otherwise he would have been unclean by association. It would have been unthinkable for a faithful person to do otherwise, but apparently not for God. In the first of several difficult dreams an angel explained that he should not reject Mary. Her situation was due to the Holy Spirit having conceived a child in her. When he awoke he must have sounded a little like a Tui beer ad – “Yeah, right. If I had a shekel for every time I heard that one.”" Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=327&id=797